The Boomerang
by SH313
Summary: Wild Charger is a pony born in a southern land. When he came to Equestria and saw the lawlessness in Stalliongrad, he decided to do something about it. Wielding his special talent, a boomerang, he dedicates his time to protecting good ponies from danger!


Luna's moon glimmered in the dark night above Equestria. Regal unicorns in masquerade masks reveled at the sight from a balcony in Canterlot castle. A group of pegasi in Cloudsdale spread their wings so that their feathers could glisten against the soft light.

Unfortunately, not all ponies have the chance to admire the princess's work tonight. Stalliongrad was never a particularly safe place when the sun went down, a statement this pink pony would certainly agree upon as she began to notice the hooded figure behind her. Her heart began to pick up in beat and her breathing quickened. She sped up her trot a little to test her pursuer's intentions. Her fears were confirmed when the other pony behind her sped up as well.

She cursed under her breath. She knew better than to be out at this time, but her boss ordered her to finish the big project tonight no matter what it took, but the mare didn't want it to cost her life. She promised that if she survived the night, this would be her last day working for such a demanding employer.

The mare snapped out of her thoughts when she heard her pursuer begin to gallop. She followed suit and dashed to the right at the end of the block. Lights on store signs began stretching as her pace increased. After half a minute of running, she realized she could not shake the hooded figure, and took to the streets hoping the carriages would cut him off. She jumped passed two of them and slid under a third, then continued down the other side of the street.

But the figure was ever persistent. The pink pony nearly tripped when she jumped into an alley way. They dodged passed dumpsters and knocked over trashcans in a game of cat and mouse, prompting alley rats to scamper away. The mare was almost stopped by a ten foot gate in the path, but managed to scramble over some boxes. She attempted to skip over the fencing, but her cloak caught on the planking. She fell only to be caught by her clothing, dangling her inches above the ground. She gasped for breath and her struggling ripped the cloak the rest of the way.

The pony coughed and gagged for breath. A few metallic clanking sounds could be heard, then a loud huff, and a trashcan fell on top of the mare, pinning her to the ground. Her back ached and tried to stand up but the weight of the can was too much. Just then, she saw someone step in front of her.

The figure pulled back his hood, revealing a stallion with a dirty face and gnarled teeth. She began screaming for help, but the bystanders at the end of the alley simply walked by. The figure chuckled, and she cursed his existence aloud.

The stallion knocked the trash can to the side and stomped on her snout to quiet her. "Look at the mouth on you," he grinned. "I can't wait to see you use it." Her eyes widened in fear as the stallion pulled a blade from his saddle bag and held it in her line of sight. "If you feel the urge to scream again"-he brandished the knife so that its sharp edge shone against the moonlight- "then I'll have to deal with that pretty little tongue of yours." The mare's vision was blurred by her tears, but she could still see the glint of the stainless steel and make out the blades serrated bits covered with dirt and mud. "Then again, I've never seen a detached vocal cord before…"

She wasn't aware of it, but she was shaking, almost to the point of a seizure. It didn't help that her now ragged clothes were soaking in a muddy puddle, and the air became very cold as she lay there with her assaulter's hoof on her snout. The night was not going to be pleasant, she could see, and was unsure whether she really wanted to survive it. That thought made her choke, and she began gasping for breath, prompting the stallion to remove his hoof. The mare coughed and spat, trying to cry as silently as she could so not to make her situation any worse.

The stallion dragged her a few feet from the fence to give himself room. He slipped his saddle bag off and pushed the knife to the side. His mouth salivated in anticipation of his actions. "Now stay still and quiet. Let me do as I please and you'll wake up tomorrow with only a few scrapes and bruises." The skin on the pink pony's back tightened. She felt the stallion rest his weight on top of her and his breath on her neck. He sniffed her mane deeply and he shivered with excitement. He licked her ear and whispered, "I'm going to destroy you."

The mare held her breath, making her silent. But small, whipping interrupted her fear. She blinked, trying to clear her eyes as best she could, and noticed something spinning low to the ground. She whispered silently, "What's that?"

Her assaulter's pre-game excitement was interrupted when he looked up to see the object arriving from where the alley met the street. He stared inquisitively for a few seconds then ducked to avoid the object. It flew passed, cutting part of his mane, then turned vertical and traveled through the slits in the fence.

The stallion's mouth dropped at the site of the splintering left behind on the wooden boards, but soon turned to see a dark figure on the other end of the alley. From the street lights, it could be seen that the figure was wearing something that was pale green and yellow; however, the center of the shape remained black and ominous.

"What the buck are you?" he barked. The figure stepped forward a few feet, and the mare could begin to make out some of the detail on it. The head had a black mask with dark green lenses where the eyes should be, and the body had a green uniform with yellow streaks running from head to tail. The stallion became a little unnerved, "Can't you see I'm busy here?"

The figure began walking forward again, taking one step every few seconds. As it approached its appearance became clearer, but its demeanor remained as dark as the alley. "Let the lady go." The voice had barely an echo, and seemed to cause the wind to stand still.

Out of fear, the stallion with gnarled teeth grabbed the dirty knife beside him and heaved the mare up by her neck with one hoof. Holding his blade sideways in his mouth, he kept the sharp edge to her throat and began backing away just as fast as the masked figure approached. Tears began to flood the pink pony's eyes. She couldn't tell which was more painful: his leg dragging her weight by her neck, or the knife with the serrated edge filled with mud and dirt beginning to dig into her fur.

In an attempt to understand his situation, the stallion shouted, "Stop moving! What's your name?" He began shaking and accidentally cut into the mare's skin, prompting more tears and a yelp from her.

"Duck," the figure responded.

His face was rolling with sweat, "What? I swear, you don't answer me, I'll cut. I'll cut real good!" He took a deep breath, "Now stop moving!"

"Please," the mare pleaded, "stop. Do what he says. It hurts." She squeezed her eyes as her assaulter tightened his grip.

"Answer me," he repeated himself, " What's your name?"

"Duck!"

The stallion pulled the knife closer to the pink pony, but before he could begin his motion to cut, the spinning object came back through the slit in the gate. It bounced upward, right off the back of the stallions head. Somewhere in his body a bone could be heard snapping and he toppled forward through the air, dropping his blade and leaving the mare to gasp for air yet again.

When he was reunited with the ground, he felt pain throughout his body. A possibly concussion from the object, bruises on his chest from impacting the ground, and blurry eyes caused by a debilitating headache. He opened his eyes as much as he could, and could just make out the figure catching the object in its teeth. It was a wide v-shaped object with a circular design at the base of the V and line curving away from this to the tips. The figure bent downward to clean its weapon in the puddle the stallions face was laying in. He could see splinters from the fence and hairs from his main wash off from the edge of the object. The figure then sheathed his weapon into a pocket on the right side of his suit.

The stallion tried to lift himself up, but was stopped when a mighty hoof stomped on his snout. He winced in pain, but managed to move his eyes upward. The figure glared down at him. "Fair warning. I told you to duck." The figure pressed down harder on his snout. "Doesn't feel good, does it?" He tried to let out a yelp, but could choke. The pressure from the hoof was making it impossible to breath, and he could feel himself sinking away.

The figure lifted his hoof finally, prompting the stallion to gasp and cough just as his victim had earlier. After a moment, he heard the voice call at him, "Hey! Look at me." He wiped his eyes and lifted himself to a sitting position. When he finally dared to listen to the order, he saw the figure was with its back to him. It reared onto its front legs and pulled in its back feet to get ready for a kick.

It turned its head to the stallion to look him in the eyes. "Buck you." With that, he let his back feet loose, kicking the stallion in the chest. The mare watched in amazement as her assaulter tumbled through the air and crashed through the fence. She turned toward the figure, which was now walking towards her.

She was still unsure of what was going on and her heart began racing again. She began scrambling away as best she could, only to find that her back legs weren't working. The figure's face turned from a dark demeanor to one of worry, and it rushed up to her. "Wait! Please, don't move too much, you might hurt yourself."

The mare leaned herself up against a trashcan as the suited figure approached. Tears were flooding her eyes again and she spoke between sobs, "Please, don't hurt me! I'm not worth your time, just go!" She flailed around as best she could to keep it away, but it was no use. He moved his foot upward and she flinched, expecting to be struck, but instead felt a hoof stroking her mane and heard a reassuring voice.

"Shhh," the voice was soft, and came from a stallion, "Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you."

She looked up, meeting the strangers gaze. His mask no longer seemed threatening, and his smile calmed her heartbeat some. "What are you doing?"

"Helping you. We should really get you to the hospital." Now that she was calm, he moved his hoof from her mane, "Can you walk?"

"I don't think so."

"Just a moment." He walked behind a trashcan for a moment. The mare was in too much pain to inquire as to what the figure was doing, but she wasn't interested anyway. She could tell that more than just her legs were hurt. She could have sworn her nose was broken from how hard the attacker stomped on it, and her chest was burning. It didn't help that her clothing and fur were still soaked with muddy water.

She was out of her thoughts when she heard the figure come back from behind the trashcan. But this time the figure didn't have a green-lensed mask and a green and yellow suit. This time it was a cream colored earth pony with a dark brown mane and a gray, freckled snout. His hooves were large and had long fur hanging over them. He had a strap on his back holding the sheathed V-shaped object the figure used earlier, and a cutie mark that matched the object.

"Here," He said as he bent down in front of her, motioning the mare to get on his back. She lifted herself up enough to get her front legs over his neck, and he grabbed it to help pull her up. After a moment of fidgeting, she lay on top of his back with her arms holding onto his neck. After checking once more to see if see was able to hold on, he carried her out of the alley and onto the sidewalk.

"Where are we heading?" the mare inquired.

He stopped at the end of the block to let some carriages pass, "Hospital. We need to get you fixed up."

"But I don't have any money."

He sighed as he crossed the street. Thinking for a moment, he responded, "Don't worry about that, I'll be paying."

She held on tighter while he trotted to make it to the other sidewalk, "Why?"

"Because you're seriously injured. You might have something worse than you know."

"Not that. I mean, why did you help me? Earlier I yelled out to pedestrians, but nopony helped."

He smiled as they passed a few carolers on a corner. They were entering a nicer part of Stalliongrad at this point, and closing in on the hospital. "It's what I do. Those ponies should have helped. They would want someone to in the same situation." The mare sighed at the answer.

They traveled silently for a few minutes. She didn't understand how this night went from walking home by herself to a hospital visit ordered by a random helpful stranger.

When she thought about her attacker, she felt she had to ask, "Is he going to be okay?"

"Huh, you mean that guy who attacked you?" He could feel the mare nod to confirm it. "No. That thing I hit him with was tipped with some chemicals. He's going to fall asleep if I didn't knock him out, but he's not going to wake up. It's not exactly the best way to deal with his kind, but it's not like the city guards will do anything about it."

The mare tightened her grip on her rescuers neck as they approached the hospital, considering what he just said. "Why do you do this? How does it benefit you?"

He pushed open the doors to the medical facility and helper her into a waiting room seat, "It doesn't really. What's your name? I need it to register you."

"Cotton…Sprinkles."

"Hfff-okay, I'll be right back." The stallion chuckled as he galloped up to the front desk and began talking with the receptionist. The pink pony saw him say something that inticed laughter from the receptionist. After signing a few papers, he walked back to the mare. "Come on, there's not many ponies here right now so they can get you in immediately."

She nodded, and they went through the steps of getting her into a carrying position. She noticed many nurses and doctors wave at the stallion as they followed the receptionist through the hallway. His friendliness prompted her to believe that he'd been at this facility before. They eventually came across a room labeled MRI, where the receptionist handed a unicorn in a lab coat a clip board with the pink mare's information on it. He nodded and ushered the earth pony into the room.

The unicorn instructed the stallion to lay the mare down on cold metal plate that rested on a rail. The rail led into a large circular hole in a large machine. She gulped at the site, "Am I going in there?"

"Yes," the doctor unicorn stated, "this is going analyze your brain for us so we can check you for a concussion. This boy here already told us what happened to you, so this is just going to be the first of many tests we'll have to run. Is that alright?"

The mare looked at the earth pony for approval, and he nodded. "Yes, I'm okay with it."

"Good. Now just lay with your arms spread out and we'll get this started." The unicorn walked to a control panel on the other side of the room. He pressed a few buttons then turned a key and the machine began vibrating with action.

"This looks awfully expensive," the mare said worriedly.

The stallion smiled, "Let me worry about that. You just worry about staying still, Cotton."

The smile calmed the mare a bit, making her realize how tense she still was from the night's events. "What's your name? If you don't mind me asking."

The cream earth pony thought for a moment, then responded, "That suited guy is called Boomerang. But you can call me Wild Charger."

Cotton smiled softly. For some reason, the name fit him. He was very tall, and obviously strong thinking back to when he kicked her attacker. And maybe it was just her head hurting, or just that he did it for her, but he seemed the type of pony to go and help people. He was definitely bigger than most people he'd have to go against, anyway.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the rail started moving her and the tray. The doctor peered over from across the room, "Don't move too much while you're in there. The MRI can't scan you if you're not still, and we'll just have to redo it."

Cotton gave a worried look towards Wild Charger. "Don't worry," he said, "just try going to sleep, it's what I always do. By the time I wake up, it's already done."

The mare took a deep breath. Sleeping would be welcome after such an eventful night. Remembering exactly what happened, however, caused her a sting of fear. "So, Wild…are you still going to be here when I wake up?"

He gave a reassuring nod, "Don't worry. I won't leave your side until you're home safe."

By now, her body was disappearing into the machine for scanning. "Thank you." The last thing she saw before she closed her eyes was the worry-relieving gaze of her hero, the same thing she'd hope would be in her sight when she awoke.


End file.
